Three-dimensional hydromagnetic simulation of a high-velocity gas-puff Z-pinch

Author

Peterkin, Robert E., Jr. ; Roderick, Norman F. ; Colella, Shari ; Lileikis, Dennis E.

Author_Institution

Res. Lab., Kirtland Air Force Base, NM, USA

Volume

27

Issue

1

fYear

1999

fDate

2/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

118

Lastpage

119

Abstract

Experiments on the Sandia National Laboratories Saturn pulsed power machine have produced high-velocity Z-pinch plasma implosions of krypton gas puffs from a circular nozzle. We use the three-dimensional (3-D), time-dependent MACH3 magnetohydrodynamics code to simulate these experiments. Generally, the quality of Z-pinch implosions is degraded by hydromagnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities. The images displayed in this paper illustrate the growth in time of this instability in three spatial dimensions from a modest (and realistic) initial 3-D perturbation

Keywords

Rayleigh-Taylor instability; Z pinch; plasma instability; plasma magnetohydrodynamics; plasma simulation; Kr; Sandia National Laboratories; Saturn; Z-pinch implosions; circular nozzle; high-velocity Z-pinch plasma implosions; high-velocity gas-puff Z-pinch; hydromagnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities; initial 3-D perturbation; krypton gas puffs; plasma simulation; pulsed power machine; quality degradation; spatial dimensions; three-dimensional hydromagnetic simulation; three-dimensional time-dependent MACH3 magnetohydrodynamics code; Anodes; Cathodes; Degradation; Electrodes; Laboratories; Magnetohydrodynamic power generation; Plasma accelerators; Plasma displays; Plasma simulation; Saturn;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.763078

Filename

763078